


Ray of Light

by vogue91



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Peace, Pictures, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 09:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14912519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: He knew the snowy winters in Miyagi, in his Shikama, where a little over seven thousands people lived, all put to rest by that freezing February which announced itself identical to those he had lived for twenty years, which announced the usual creepy fog and the same weather which left no plan to make.Now, instead, he felt some sort of unnatural warmth.Okinawa.Daiki was fascinated.





	Ray of Light

He was expecting cold.

He was, because the sky tasted cold.

He knew the snowy winters in Miyagi, in his Shikama, where a little over seven thousands people lived, all put to rest by that freezing February which announced itself identical to those he had lived for twenty years, which announced the usual creepy fog and the same weather which left no plan to make.

Now, instead, he felt some sort of unnatural warmth.

_Okinawa._

Daiki was fascinated.

He had left, as if taken by an unstoppable instinct, which had led him like a robot to Sendai’s airport, which had made him board that plane, which had gone more and more to the south before landing.

Only when he had stepped on the island, he had woken up.

What was he doing there?

During his life, he had never gotten away from the Miyagi prefecture. And yet, something had clicked in him.

It had been during another university class, when he had seen the same faces, when he had heard his friends’ voices, always with the same tone, that he had felt suffocating.

At first he had blamed it on the stress. Then, seeing that it didn’t diminish nor disappear, he had lost control over himself.

And he had left, he had cowardly run from that greyness. A quick phone call to his parents, without giving them time to reply, and he had found himself there, hanging, with too small a suitcase and too big a desire to live his life.

Slowly, he had started smiling.

He couldn’t explain why that choice. The south was full of quiet places, sunny ones, closer to his standards. More important cities, perhaps with more things to see and more experiences to live. But he had chosen that specific place, renowned, alive, where the air echoed with the sounds of a population that distinguished itself from the rest of Japan.

And, he had to admit it to himself, among all those people there was someone he had come to meet.

Breathing meant a whole other thing right now.

 

~

 

He was at the Shikinaen Garden, and it felt like he knew that place already.

His mind ran to a few years before, and he closed his eyes.

He saw a face, he heard a voice, he felt the texture of a smooth and unnaturally cold skin under his fingers.

Yamada Ryosuke.

When he had called him the night before, he had expected the boy not to remember about him, to hang up on him, to tell him he was busy.

Instead, against all odds, he had told him to meet there, in that place so different from the few others he had seen, capable of giving him memories of moments he had never lived.

 

_“And what’s this?” he asked to the younger. They were in the shadow of a secular tree, a sequoia, he thought._

_Yamada was showing him pictures of his city, Naha, his eyes strangely misty._

_Daiki had been surprised by that. Ryosuke was in Sendai for his studies, he was going to leave again in a few months. And him, coming from a northern town in the middle of nowhere, couldn’t understand that homesickness for his hometown._

_Until, at least, he had seen that picture._

_“That’s the Shikinaes Garden.” he said, finally smiling. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he went on, his voice light, so obviously marked by an accent that Daiki found wonderful._

_He had nodded and had kept staring at the picture, as if there was something in it he couldn’t really grasp._

But now that it was right in front of him, there was nothing in that place that could’ve been misunderstood.

One couldn’t just not appreciate the simplicity and elegance of the stretch of grass, couldn’t not fall in love with the way the trees skirted the path stolen to the lawn, couldn’t not been captivated by the water capturing every colour, blending them in shade that Arioka had never seen before in his life.

It was the perfect spot, which only mystery laid in its beauty, untouched by the time passing by.

He was leaning against one of the trees, sitting on the stairs leading to the construction on the edge of the lake. He stared astonished at the shy sun of December and the way it made the colours more vivid, sure that Shikama had never seen a sun like that.

He saw him coming from afar, he saw him walk that apparently infinite space, as if he was bound to never get closer.

With his mind, he went back to the phone call.

He was in a phone booth in front of the hotel, and he looked around as if he wanted to hide what he was doing, ashamed of himself as he had never been during his whole existence.

 

_“Yamada?”_

_“Yes, hello?” the voice was hesitating, but weirdly cheerful._

_“It’s Daiki. Arioka Daiki.” he had murmured, losing all of a sudden any form of bravery which had forced him to call._

_“Daiki, hi! It’s so nice to hear from you!” he had answered, his voice more excited._

_“I'm in Naha...” he was starting to feel anxious, wondering what had led him to that city, to call him, to hope with all his might that Yamada wasn’t going to think he was crazy for having taken a plane to go to a place where he had apparently no business to attend._

_“Really? I can't believe it! The one from Miyagi, so attached to his land, has crossed the prefecture’s borders?” he had mocked him a little. When he received no answer, he went on. “Can we meet tomorrow? I’ve got a few hours off, I’ve got no classes.” he had suggested, making the elder sigh of relief._

_“Perfect. Where are we meeting?”_

_“Do you remember that picture I’ve shown you? Shikinaen?”_

_Daiki had stupidly nodded, before realizing that Yamada couldn’t see him through the phone._

_“Yes, I do. Is nine okay?”_

It was nine fifteen.

Yamada had cut it close, but not too much.

Enough for Arioka to sink in an abyss of uncertainties.

That was why the shape of the boy getting closer, even though in such a horribly slow way, made him smile like it hadn't happened to him in a long time.

He was even... _brighter_ than he remembered.

It was like in his natural habitat he was different from the Ryosuke he remembered, as if Okinawa’s sun made him look more beautiful, as if only that in the world could really make him justice, as opposed to the fog and mist that had normally surrounded him in Sendai.

“Daiki!” he heard him scream, while he ran toward him. He hugged him, with a passion that the elder wouldn’t have expected, despite having to admit he had hoped in it.

“Hi, Yamada.” he said, his voice controlled. He smiled, happy of the warm welcome.

They started walking, in no rush at all.

“What are you doing here?” the younger asked, a question that Daiki of course had been expecting, but that he didn’t feel ready to answer to.

“I took a plane and... well, here I am.” he said, stupidly. The redness stood out on his pale face as it never had, and Ryosuke frowned.

“I thought so. I doubted you had swum here.” he ironized. “I just wanted to know what brings you so far from home.”

“Stress, I think. I went to the airport, unsure as to where to go to. And then... I thought about you, and I took the first flight to Naha.” the smile on the younger’s face softened his discomfort, pushing him to keep talking. “After all, you’ve seen how life is in Shikama. Not exactly what you’d call exciting.”

Ryosuke nodded, as if he understood his motivations perfectly.

“I'm glad to see you. You’re one of the few things from there I miss.” he admitted, pretending to shiver.

“I know, I know. We agree on the fact that Miyagi’s got all to envy from Okinawa, alright?” he conceded, amused. Yamada shrugged.

“I didn’t say that. It’s logical for me to love Okinawa, after all it’s my hometown, I’ve been living here since I was born. It’s a little less logical you running from your home, even though we’ve established that Shikama is the least stimulating place of all of Japan.” he said, both serious and amused.

Daiki sighed. He turned to look at him, wondering for the first time if the idea of Shikama suffocating him was the only real reason that had brought him there.

“I’ve got my reasons.” he muttered, suddenly embarrassed. The younger shrugged again, and for a while they walked quietly.

Arioka was antsy, but he kept telling himself that it was just about being away from home for the first time.

And also that sun, beautiful and so little familiar, played its part in it.

 

~

 

They hadn't decided it, but their steps led them there, in that place that Daiki vaguely remembered having seen in a picture.

The Tamaudun stood tall in front of him, as proof of the nobility of the Ryuku’s royal family, just like the Shikinaen.

Even there the rays of sun acted as lords and masters, and the boy started to feel uncomfortable for all that light he wasn’t used to.

They sat on a short wall close to the mausoleum, and Yamada stared at Daiki with a crooked smile.

“You’re weird, you know?” he said, all of a sudden. The elder tried to look as dignified as possible, before replying to him.

“Never tried to be normal.” he said, all haughty, with the clear intent of making fun of him, but Ryosuke shook his head and smiled, exasperated.

“What are you doing here?” he asked once again. And, once again, he didn’t answer and shrugged, letting his eyes wander to the mausoleum and the people around it, still feeling a little disoriented.

He grabbed his camera, almost hesitating. He pointed it toward the main entrance and took a picture, almost solemn in doing so. Then he sighed.

“You know, I've always thought that cameras are a great invention. I thought they were useful to help the memory when it starts to fade.” he stared at the object in his hands and sighed again. “But a camera can reproduce things, places, people. Not what they feel or what they instil. You can't print that on paper, that’s for memories only.” he murmured,  more to himself than to Ryosuke. 

Yamada, on his part, smiled.

“Take a picture of me.” he said, calm. Daiki frowned, but did as he had asked, then he stared questioningly at him. The younger shook his head and glanced at the camera.

“Do you really think that if you print that picture all you’re going to see is a face? That you won't remember about this day, about me and what you’ve felt?” he rested his hand on his shoulder, complicit. “I think that pictures grab some stuff better than the eyes, and that when you look at them again memories are complemented with new feelings. There are things you just don’t forget, Daiki.” he said, then he squinted and looked at the sun.

Arioka kept quiet for a while.

He was quite pessimist, he admitted that.

He wondered if, for some reason, it was that sun making Yamada such an optimist. If under its sun, when the shadows and the fog from Miyagi were so afar, it actually was easier to see the beauty around him.

He looked at the other one and smiled, serene.

He looked beautiful. Damn beautiful, even more there that he was in Sendai, when his beauty seemed too inadequate to that place to be truly seen.

He was beautiful, and Daiki was there for him.

Because his voice, his breathing, his own skin had called him, had led him to that place, permeated in something foreign which made him feel like a different person.

Perhaps it wasn’t just Yamada.

It was Naha, it was the Shikinaen, it was the Tamaudun.

It was the sun, that burning star whose light almost made the sky look touchable.

He smiled to the boy sitting next to him, a smile finally sincere, lacking the vices of his wish to find a reason for everything.

In that smile, he thanked Yamada Ryosuke for being there, for having shown to him the beauty of that place, for having made him discover how the world actually went over words and plain feelings, extending itself toward boundaries his imagination would've never dared to cross.

“Thank you.” he whispered, trying to include in that incredibly insignificant word all that was going through his mind, all his gratitude and that new consciousness he had of himself, the best gift ever given to him.

He kissed his lips, softly, without knowing why.

And perhaps there was no reason, and for once, he couldn’t bring himself to care.

 

~

 

“Hi, it’s me!”

“Hi, stranger.”

Yamada’s voice came from afar, but it had never felt closer to Daiki.

“I’ve printed the pictures.” he said, wasting no time with useless chit-chat.

“And what do you see?” the younger asked, curious.

Daiki smiled, before realizing the other couldn’t see him. A habit he hadn't lost, even though he wondered if sometimes Ryosuke wasn’t able to understand anyway. 

“You’re not a shrink and these pictures aren't ink stains where I have to see imaginary shapes.”

Ryosuke laughed, and he basked in the thought of his face, enlightened by the sun and by that genuine laughter.

“You know what I mean.” was all he said.

Daiki stared at the picture in his hands.

The Tamaudun’s contours, the sun projecting its indistinct shadows on the bright, warm stone.

Yamada’s face was everywhere in that picture, more alive than ever.

“I see everything.” he murmured, ecstatic.

He truly did.

And, picture or not, he knew he was going to remember that place and that face forever.

There was a soul in that image, and he knew it was his own.

He smiled again, looking outside the window.

It was foggy, that day.  But now he could see beyond the greyness, and picture the rays of light in Okinawa.


End file.
